Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 14, 2019 - 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Deut 30:10-14; Col 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37]There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you shall live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" [Luke]
It has been my pastoral experience that for every one of Jesus' teachings (and those of the Old Testament) somebody is going to have a "What if.....?" question. That usually signals to me that the questioner is finding the teaching difficult or contrary to their social, political or economic beliefs. In the case of the "scholar of the law" who tests Jesus, he is trying to fit Jesus' response into his social beliefs. "Neighbor" might mean somebody whom he might not ordinarily want to associate with! Jesus' response to that question is the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. A Samaritan would definitely be outside the social circle of that scribe!
The first scripture for today from Deuteronomy tells us that the fundamental law of God is "something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out." But the scribe, like so many of us, has a "What if?" question. Jesus' parable basically tells the scribe that his neighbor is the person in front of him in need. The impulse to narrow the application of Jesus' teachings to a more comfortable level by excluding certain "kinds" of people is a terrible temptation. At the end of the parable Jesus asks the scribe who proved to be a neighbor to the victim of the robbers. "He answered, 'The one who treated him with mercy.' Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." Are we going to continue to ask, "But, what if.......?"
Our neighbor lives next door to us, stands in the pew beside us, and is gathered at our southern border or fleeing from wars and violence. They may all be victims of the "What if....?" tendency. We know what Jesus' reply to that is, and what we need to do. AMEN